ARTICLE V.

History of the Apostolic Church. By PHILIP SCHAFF, Professor in the Theological Seminary at Mercersburg, Pa. Translated by EDWARD D. YEOMANS. New-York. 1853.

THERE was a time, and that not many years ago, when every thing from Germany was looked upon with suspicion. Germany was supposed to be wholly given up to Neologism. It has now, however, come to be understood, that all is not heterodox which comes out of Germany, but that an acquaintance with German theology is a knowledge of good as well as of evil. The translation of Hengstenberg's Christology, or Commentary on the Prophecies of Christ, by Dr. Keith of the Alexandria Seminary; of Knapp's Theology, by Woods; and of Neander's Church History, by Torrey; besides several of the Andover publications, have contributed much to remove this prejudice. As the case is now, the Hebrew Grammar and Lexicon of Gesenius have superseded all others, and the Commentaries of Tholuck and Olshausen are more and more consulted. Such an influx of German opinions must have its effect in due time upon our theology; and we much fear the influence of Neander's Life of Christ, and some articles in Kitto's Biblical Cyclopedia, not to speak of other works, in lowering the orthodox views of the inspiration of the Scriptures. Theological writers in this country and England borrow largely from German sources, acting on the old maxim, "Egyptii sunt, spoliemus. It reminds us of the state of things in Israel, when there was "no smith in the land, but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his weapon. If we look into Conybeare and Howson's Life of St. Paul, we shall find all that is valuable in it extracted from German sources. It is so with Davidson's Introduction to the New Testament, Alexander on Isaiah, Robinson's Greek Lexicon, and almost every new work on Theology that can be named. The present Bishop of Lon

don, who is a consummate Greek scholar, admitted in the Quarterly Review, some twenty-five years ago, that all the English grammars and lexicons of the Greek language were made up from German sources. The editions of the classics in this country, and our most popular grammars, owe their value not to original erudition, but to the most successful use of German materials.

We hail the work before us as the harbinger of works better adapted to our wants than most of the translations we have from the German. We suspect, if the truth were known, that there has often been no small disappointment in studying such translations as Nitzsch's Christian Doctrine, Schleiermacher's Outline. The German terminology is so peculiar that such works need to be worked over by competent persons, and reproduced in the English language; a mere translation is not enough. As an example of what we mean, we regard Alexander's Commentary on the Psalms as far better than the bald translation in Clark's Foreign Library of Hengstenberg's Com-mentary, where the translator seems to give at times his understanding a holiday, and let his pen supply the place to translate words, because he did not understand the passage.

It is a new thing that a Church History should be published in this country in German, and then translated into English. The author, Dr. Schaff, is a pupil of Neander's, and was, about twelve years since, called to this country to be a professor in the German Reformed Seminary at Mercersburg, Pa. He has published several small works, among which are the "Principle of Protestantism," "What is Church History?" "The Life and Labors of St. Augustine," "America;" and was for several years the editor of the "Kirchen-Freund," a monthly periodical in the German language. In that work he first published much of the matter in the volume before us. This volume, he tells us in his preface, is to be the first in a series of perhaps nine volumes, bringing down Church history to the present time. We hope he will be encouraged to go on and complete this great work. It is not a little remarkable that we have no Church history in the English language adequate to our present wants. There is some truth in J. H. Newman's remark, "It is melancholy to say it, but the chief, perhaps the only English writer

who has any claim to be considered an ecclesiastical historian, is the infidel Gibbon." Some years ago, it will be remembered, that Dr. Jarvis was appointed by the General Convention "Historiographer of the Church." He published two volumes before his death, in which he had gone only as far as the nativity of our Lord. In the first volume he sustains the traditional dates of the day of our Saviour's birth and crucifixion; in the second he retraces his steps, and gives a history of the Church from the fall to the seventy weeks of Daniel. How long it would have required to give a complete ecclesistical history on this scale we have not calculated.

On opening the work before us, we are struck with its thoroughly German aspect. Instead of the flow of an English work, broken only by chapters, it is subdivided into numerous sections. After an accurate definition of Church history and some account of the best ancient and modern works on the subject, he proceeds to its great divisions, of which he makes three-the Primitive Church, the Church of the Middle Ages, and the Modern Church, each having three subdivisions. This is substantially Hase's division. We think these divisions, which form the great land-marks of history, judicious, and far superior to the arbitrary division into centuries adopted by Mosheim. No one century is so distinguished from another as to constitute a distinct epoch; they overlap each other, and every thing mechanical should be avoided in history where it is diffi cult to sustain interest. The work then treats of the preparation for Christianity in the Jewish and Heathen world. this interesting subject we are reminded throughout of the masterly introduction of Neander.

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The beginnings of Christianity in the Jewish and Gentile world are then discussed, with a sketch of the agency of the Apostles Paul and Peter. The second book is devoted to the moral and religious life of the Early Christians, Church Discipline, and Spiritual Gifts. The third book gives an account of the Polity, Worship, Sacraments, Fasts, and Feasts of the Apostolic Church; and in the fifth book we have its Doctrine, Theology, and Heresies.

After giving this general idea of the work, we would now notice some of the views of the author. We have (pages 8

and 9) his view of the Church. "The Church is the ark of Christianity, out of which there is no salvation; the channel of the continuous revelation of the triune God, and the powers of eternal life. As a body in general, the Church is an organic union of many members, pervaded by the same life-blood, animated by the same soul. As the body of Christ, the Church is the dwelling place of Christ, in which he exerts all the powers of his theanthropic life, and also the organ through which hẹ acts upon the world as Redeemer; as the soul manifests its activity only though the body in which it dwells. The Lord is really, efficiently, and manifestly present in the Church in his complete theanthropic person. We may justly say, therefore, that the Church is the continuation of the life and work of Christ upon earth. In the Church, the Lord is perpetually born anew in the hearts of believers, through the Holy Ghost. In the Church, the Lord speaks the words of truth and consolation to fallen man. In and through her, he heals the sick, raises the dead, distributes the heavenly manna, gives himself as spiritual food to the hungry soul. In her womb must we be born again of incorruptible seed; from her breast must we be nourished into spiritual life. The proposition, Out of Christ no salvation, necessarily includes the proposition, No salvation out of the Church."

This theory of the Church, which is to be understood from the author's language generally on the subject, while it may be held innocently by him, is of dangerous tendency, and substantially agrees with the Romish view. It is founded, it will be seen, upon a quasi-literal interpretation of the figure, body of Christ, applied by St. Paul to the Church. We might as well understand in the same way the figures of a temple and a bride, under which the Church is represented. Regarding the Church in this sense, he speaks of it as having life in itself, and the birthplace of souls, where also they are nourished by the vital energy implanted in it. This whole view makes the Church the mediator between the soul and Christ, and the relation of the individual soul to Christ dependent upon its rela tion to the Church. It reverses the language of Christ, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: abide in me;" and says, "The Church is the vine; abide in the sacraments of the

Church; without her ye can do nothing." The Church has no such life in itself as to impart life to others. It is an empty vessel, and has to be filled continually from the fountain, which is Christ, and receive of his fulness, grace upon grace.

This theory would make the question, Which is the true Church, where shall I find her? the first an awakened soul should ask; for let it be remembered, it is the visible Church, well-defined, standing out in some visible organization to the eye. If the Church is the organ through which Christ now acts; if she is the channel of the continuous revelation of the powers of eternal life; if she is the ark, out of which there is no salvation; if Christ speaks only through her, and through her raises the dead; if we must be born of her, and nursed at her breasts, (all this in the evident sense of the author,) then we should urge sinners to come first to the Church, instead of pointing them with John the Baptist to the Lamb of God. If Christ "exerts his power through her, and continues his life" through her, then we should say to the anxious, despairing soul, "Come to the Church, find out which is the true Church, come to her sacraments, come to her ordinances." If the Church too thus imparts and sustains life, what becomes of the agency of the Holy Ghost? He was to supply the place of Christ, and "continue his life and work upon earth." It is applying to the Church what is true only of the Holy Ghost. It would follow, too, that "hear the Church" was the great duty, and implicit obedience must be yielded to her.

This theory of the Church, as a visible body, influences his views of the Church of Rome. Of this Church he speaks far too indulgently. In his note on the claims of the Papacy, (p. 372,) he descants upon "her rock-like character, and her history of 1800 years," far too fondly. We may use his own language, when speaking of the ultra-Protestant view, as he calls it, "which denounces the Romish system as the most colossal and barefaced lie known to history; it plays mightily into the hands of skepticism and infidelity," and say of his own view, that it plays mightily into the hands of Romanism, that it uses the very arguments, most common and favorite to her own writers, in sustaining her infallibility-her antiquity-her rock-like character. These are the very arguments by which she has